The invention relates to a strain relief device for a glass fiber cable which is arranged at a distance from or separately from a termination or connection of a glass fiber which is included in the glass fiber cable. The invention also relates to a method for attaching a strain relief device.
Glass fiber cables are composed of one or more glass fibers which are surrounded by a cable jacket for protection against damage. A fiber material, which is composed, for example, of Kevlar fibers or Aramide yarn is arranged between the glass fibers and the cable jacket. In order to connect the individual glass fibers (optical waveguides) of the glass fiber cable to other glass fibers, the ends are either spliced or provided with a plug and/or a coupling. In the prior art, plugs and couplings are known which comprise a strain relief means so that tensile forces acting on the glass fiber cable do not impede or destroy the connection of the individual glass fibers to those of another glass fiber cable. Splicing glass fibers is generally carried out in distributor cabinets or sleeves. Strain relief of the glass fiber cables only takes place in a rudimentary form in the prior art by attaching the glass fiber cable to a component of the distributor cable or sleeve using, for example, a cable tie. A strain relief device which is designed in this way is suitable only to a certain degree for absorbing tensile forces acting on the glass fiber cable. The reason for this is that it is not desirable to squeeze the glass fiber cable, for example by means of the cable tie, since this increases the attenuation loss of the individual glass fibers which are contained in the glass fiber cable and since the provision of a strain relief means which squeezes a glass fiber cable always entails the risk of damage to individual glass fibers of the glass fiber cable. However, in distributor devices, for example distributor cabinets, it is desirable to remove the jacket from the ends of the individual glass fibers over a relatively large distance of, for example, several meters. Cutting back the jacket is a great advantage because as a result the space required to store the glass fiber can be significantly reduced since the jacket takes up a large volume in relation to the glass fiber or fibers. In addition, glass fibers which do not have a jacket are easier to guide in distributor devices. Nevertheless, it is desirable for tensile forces acting on the glass fiber cable to be absorbed at a strain relief device so that the individual glass fibers remain free of force in the distributor device.